ZEN MASTER HAS SAID...

Every year Raul Schoerge from the middle of China brings to Germany best acrobats to perform in his circus. The most devoted audience to the Chinese artists are German elderly. People who built during second part of 20th century the strongest European economy are witnessing arrival of “ubermensch” from the far east. It is simbolic clash of the civilizations – one that is over its peak, and the other which is yet to come.

Nebojsa Slijepcevic was born in 1973 in Zagreb, Croatia. In 2005 he graduated with Film Directing from the Academy of Drama and Art, also in Zagreb.

He directed numerous TV documentaries and series (Direkt, Staying Alive, City Folk), but also creative and author driven documentaries (Real Man’s Film, In 4 Years, Of Cows and People) for which he received awards from various festivals (EDN talent grant at Sarajevo FF, human rights award at Sarajevo FF, best director at Verona FF, Audience award at Zagreb Dox…). Nebojsa is also the author of a short animated film Dog / Rabbit and a short fiction Slap in the Face, which is part of the fiction omnibus Zagreb Stories. At the moment Nebojsa is finishing his first international co-production, a feature documentary Gangster of Love, coproduced by Restart (Croatia), ZDF/ARTE, Kloos & Co. (Germany) and Subcultura Films (Romania). Project was awarded in development stage, winning the IDFA award for the best project in development at the East European Forum at the Jihlava Film Festival, 2011.

Nebojsa is one of the main tutors at regular documentary workshops held by RESTART. This year Nebojsa is teaching at his most ambitious project so far: a four month long school of documentary film, aimed at people of all ages who want to direct their first documentary. Before he started his career as a director, Nebojsa was learning the job by doing whatever they let him to do, on various international and local productions. He worked as the 1st and 2nd AD on various fiction films and TV commercials. His first job with camera was in the early '90s, during the ex-Yugoslavian war. He was working as a videographer for a NGO working with refugees and displaced people. He was part of the crew that documented the life in refugee camps. At that time he was studying psychology, but after that experience he got infected by filmmaking and switched to the film school.

Nebojsa 's secret passion is photography. He has a small, but powerful collection of analog and digital cameras and lenses. He has a special affection for his first camera, the rudimentary Russian SMENA SYMBOL. Nebojsa is living and working in Zagreb, Croatia.